Braided in Fire

THE MISTREATMENT OF THE 366TH REGIMENT

in brief

The 366th was one of the very few WWII units that was all black, including its highly qualified leader, Col. Howard Donovan Queen, one of the original cavalry Buffalo Soldiers. The men respected their leader and were fiercely proud of their topnotch regiment. But when they were sent to Italy in May 1944, they were insulted by being used as service guards rather than in the job for which they had been well trained at Ft Devens, MA. When finally they were sent to the front in November 1944, Col Queen’s plea for a few weeks of retraining was ignored and they were thrown directly into battle. What was worse, the regiment was divided up into small units and assigned to various sections of the 92nd “Buffalo” Division, all led by white commanding officers.

Col Queen became superfluous, outranked by the 92nd’s General Almond, who said in his ‘welcome speech’ to the arriving 366th troops: “I did not send for you. Your Negro newspapers, Negro politicians, and white friends have insisted on your seeing combat, and I shall see that you get combat and your share of the casualties.” He more than kept his word.

The 366th suffered the brunt of several ill-planned engagements.  Two thirds of those in the Sommocolonia battle died and many more were lost later in a frontal attack on the heavily mined and artillery fortified Cinquale Canal near the coast. For an example of the kind of assignments, apparently lacking in any nuance of strategy, given the soldiers of the 366th, see Senator Edward Brooke’s account in his book, Bridging the Divide: My Life. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press, 2007. pp 26–29.  (This incident is covered briefly in Braided in Fire.)

The 366th Infantry Regiment, which suffered more than 1,300 casualties (a third of the regiment), was officially disbanded in March 1945. All personnel were transferred into engineering service regiments. Though some of General Almond’s other African-American units were also then no longer part of the 92nd Division, no other outfit was stripped of its infantry status. This was a humiliating blow to the soldiers involved. The final insult came when John Fox’s comrades arrived back on US soil at the war’s end, were loaded onto buses and ordered to the back because the seats in front were reserved for white German POWs.

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Knowing about their ordeal in the US Army of WWII, I was astounded at the ability of many of the 366th veterans to pull themselves together after the war and forge distinguished careers. In a 1975 interview (with Mary Penick Motley), Col. Queen had this to say: “General Almond may have succeeded in decimating the ranks of the 366th and wounding their pride, but he never destroyed their self-respect… among the members of the 366th were…” He mentioned seven men, starting with Senator Edward Brooke, elected Senator of Massachusetts at a time when the state was only three percent African American.  

Beginning with Col Queen’s seven, I started a list of 366th vets who led remarkable postwar lives. Now with 27 names, the list remains sorely incomplete (information is particularly lacking about the enlisted men), but it is nevertheless impressive.

The military ranks given reflect those held in March 1945. A number of the men subsequently achieved higher rank. Where I’m aware that the change was dramatic, it is noted. I have included little information about the post war pursuits of the main protagonists in Braided in Fire because that is covered in the text.

Solace Wales